Page 14 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – Friday, May 24, 2019 O’TOOLE | from page 11 that because all of the members in the council happen to be members of the Procopio Post 210. And I believe I may have been the commander of the post when we were organizing to get it named after him. And that was a great honor for him and his family. He will be forever memorialized as a young man who stepped up to protect you and me and sadly lost his life. But what I would like to say to the children of Saugus is that veterans are everywhere. They could be a teacher; they could be the custodian in your building. Q: They have a nice display at the American Legion for the late Cpl. Scott J. Procopio, right at the entrance as you come through the door. And for people who don’t visit the Legion Hall, there’s another display in his honor on the fi rst fl oor of Saugus Town Hall. A: Absolutely, right on the left-hand side as you come in. Q: Do you get a lot of questions about Cpl. Procopio from the students when you visit the schools? A: Sometimes. A lot of times, we’ll ask the students “What is a veteran.” And they’ll say, “Well, that’s somebody who dies for their country.” Well, on Veterans Day, not necessarily. Hopefully, you don’t die for your country. What they see on television and in the media, that’s their image of veterans, so we like to get them to believe that veterans are everyday people; they’re everywhere; they’re all around you. Q: Do you get many questions? Do you get to talk about Saugus’ own Medal of Honor winner – Arthur Frederick DeFranzo, a U.S. Army soldier from Saugus who was killed in World War II? A: I don’t ever recall that we did. We just try to get them to understand what the day is about, whether it’s Memorial Day or Veterans Day. On Veterans Day, we go to one or two of the schools. Last year we did a fl ag raising for Veterans Day. We bring the children out and discuss Veterans Day and what that means. I think it’s just getting the message out there. We’re not trying to recruit anybody. We just want them to know that the rights that they have and the things that they can do in their lives today have been paid for by the lives of those who have gone before them on Memorial Day. Not just veterans. I know of other people in the country who have done some Award-Winning Landscaping Servicing the North Shore for over 38 Years great things, but since we are honoring veterans on Memorial Day, the students need to understand that some of the things they can do today are because of sacrifi ces made by people who fought and died for this country. And it’s important to understand history – whether it’s your country, your culture, your religion, your race or your anything. You need to understand your history going forward to where you are today to have any hope of fi guring out where you are going to be tomorrow. If we forget our history – Memorial Day and all of those other events – then I think we’re in trouble. Q: Do you think most kids in Saugus today, when they walk up the steps of Town Hall and you’ve got that Honor Roll of the 461 Saugus residents who served the town during World War I, and they have stars by 14 of those names, do you think that they understand what those stars are about – the men who died in action or in training – or that they even notice the stars? A: No. Even the statues we have out front, I don’t think they know much about the people being honored for sacrifi cing their lives for their country. Q: The three Saugus men killed during the Vietnam War and those who died during the Global War on Terrorism ... A: Yep. And the Procopio one around the corner. Honestly, I think younger kids will look at it and they look at the guns and the helmets and the uniforms, but does it have a real meaning to them? I don’t think so, and I think that for a couple of reasons. One, it goes back to my history argument. We really don’t talk about it a lot. I don’t believe we even teach it anymore, and many of their families – that if they have veterans in them – veterans don’t talk a lot. Veterans don’t talk a lot. I mean, it was almost on his deathbed that my brother Tommy started talking about what he went through in Vietnam, and he’s my own brother. And I had an incident on the Boston Police Department during a police raid with the SWAT Team where one of my men was shot four times, and there was a barricade and a very involved situation, so when I fi nally got home to see my brother, he started to tell me how I should react to the feelings my men were going to go through, seeing one of their men shot. And he almost choked up because he was back in his realm as a leader. And I learned a lot during that short period of time as to how I was going to be feeling, just by talking to my brother. But other than that, they [veterans] wear a hat and wear a shirt today that says DD 214. Now, to anybody who’s in the military, they understand that it’s an important document. Because you get that when you leave [the DD Form 214, Certifi cate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty]. I’ve had a couple of people say, “What’s that, a college or something?” No. Obviously you knew they weren’t a veteran when you got that kind of response, so I just think we need to get people to understand the purpose of the day – to honor those who sacrifi ced their lives – and to learn from it. Hopefully, no one ever has to die again in combat or in the military. That would be a perfect world. Q: Did that man you talked about who was shot four times in the police raid – your offi cer – did he make it? A: Oh yeah. God love him. Scotty O’Brien – he got shot four times. There was a guy on a roof. Somebody had to go up and get him. Scotty volunteered. 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